Americans are a funny lot. Their sports teams mean so much to them. Their mascots are bigger than life. Their nick names legion. The LA Lakers came from Minneapolis – the land of 1000 lakes. Here in Los Angeles, Mac Arthur Park is the closest thing to an association with the Laker name. We do have a bunch of reservoirs however. How about the Utah Jazz? They used to be known first as the New Orleans Jazz. Our old LA Rams, were originally known as the Cleveland Rams. Now they are the St. Louis Rams. The Oakland “A’s”, otherwise known as the Athletics were originally the Philadelphia Athletics. The LA Dodgers of course were originally the Brooklyn Dodgers. The famous case of the Indianapolis Colts, who were originally the Baltimore Colts. There really aren’t that many franchise sports teams that are still from their original locations. We do have the Chicago Bears. We also have the New York Giants, but even they play in New Jersey. In the old days a famous baseball player, Eddie Matthews played for the Boston Braves! They of course have moved to Atlanta and have the famous Tomahawk Chop! The city of Cleveland really has problems with the Browns (brown colored people) and Cleveland Indians baseball team!

References to Native Americans has always been an opportunity to exhibit our appreciation: The famous Stanford Cardinal were originally the Stanford Indians. The reference was one of reverence and caring for Native Americans through educational and college athletic superiority. The “political correct” found a way to cast a demeaning pale on that and so the Stanford Indians became the Stanford Cardinal. There truly must be something wrong with a name like “the Crimson Tide” too. What does that mean? There will be blood on the sports field whenever they play? How about the USC Trojans? Taken from the great Greek novel by Homer, the Trojans were said to be a bunch of Jewish Arabs who put the Hellenic World in great danger, because they were competitors to the Macedonians, Spartans, Athenians and all the other Greeks. Perhaps that name too will offend someone? The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are another ethnic stereotype that perhaps has seen its best day. Or worse yet, their Leprechaun Clashmore Mike, one of the very offensive little people. Perhaps Notre Dame should halt any reference to Irish people too! Why not just the Notre Dame Golden Domes? How about one of the worst offenders: The San Diego State Aztecs? Montezuma’s Revenge? Good grief and their on field mascots…..actual people dressed like Indians on the field of play, with horse, spears and bow and arrows. Don’t they understand how offended the Aztecs are? Just go ask them!

We could list literally hundreds of school names that would offend someone in less than two seconds. Should we ask the Oklahoma Sooners to not offend men that suffer from premature ejaculation? We are still upset about the LSU Tigers! Don’t these people know that Tigers are soon to be extinct? And what about those Nitany Lions? Are there really Nitany Lions or are they just made up – to put down real lions? Hey, we have a whole list of birds, animals, and made up images that are bound to offend someone enough to get covered on CNN. Hey, even Jim Thorpe played for the Carlisle Indians! What is the big rush to castigate the Washington Redskins? What about the Kansas City Chiefs? And what are Buckeyes anyway? How about Michigan causing the Big Blue……you fill in the blank! Michigan State Spartans? How racist is that?

Life has come to to an incredibly sensitive turn of events, in the hyper politically correct world. Hey, we give to the Council of Indian Nations. We send money to the Lakota Tribe. In fact we give to over seven Native American causes. Considering we may only have 10% Cherokee blood or Sioux background – we cannot do enough for our Native American brothers and sisters. However, the Washington Redskins have been the Washington Redskins for over 80 years! This is an unique franchise which certainly does nothing to harm the image of Native Americans that we can see! We went to Fullerton Union High School. We are still known as the FUHS Indians, due in no small part to my old high school counselor Louis Armijo, who was a Pima-Hopi-Navajo WWII Code Talker, shot down in the chase plane for the Enola Gay. Taking over a year in the hospital to recover from 14 days in the waters of the Pacific. Louie found nothing wrong with keeping the FUHS Indian logo, our Featherettes or our cheer leaders! Louis passed away three years ago and would be turning over in his grave with this stupid controversy regarding the Washington Redskins! Dan Snyder – the Biggest Redskin of them all – keep trucking sir! Sometimes, history needs to be remembered. Would these same naysayers regarding the Redskin name – be any happier with the Washington Native Americans? Probably not!

We wish Dan Snyder and the entire Washington Redskins NFL Football organization well, in their battles ahead against stupidity on a grand scale. We hope that Roger Goodell will stand up and support all his owners when it comes to when it comes to choice of their nick names, cheerleaders or mascots! If these things cannot be copyrighted then what can?

About Ron & Anna Winship

Independent News Producers/Writers and Directors for Parker-Longbow Productions. Independent Programming which includes a broad variety of Political, Entertainment and Professional Personalities. Cutting Edge - a talk show...is the flagship of over 30 URL websites developed or under development.
The Winships have been blogging for the Orange Juice since back when nickels had buffalos on them, and men wore onions attached to their belts, because it was the fashion back then.

3 Comments

have you heard that the Indians were called redskins because of the warpaint they put on? not because they were naturally red skinned? (sort of like the redcoats). so redskins were a war(rior) paint job. football is a war on Sundays. I think the name fits perfectly.

If I owned the team, I would re-sticker the helmets with pictures of pomegranites, salute the complainers with a middle finger, and say “We’re keeping the name – meet your replacements- they have thicker skins,and they are more beneficial to society!” But I guess that’s why I don’t own a pro sports team. Oh,and not caring for sports or having a gazillion dollars, yeah, there’s that.